


A Walk in the Woods

by Josh89



Series: A Detective's Story [7]
Category: Criminal Case (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Dogs, Don't copy to another site, Gen, Walking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-23
Updated: 2019-06-23
Packaged: 2020-05-18 06:45:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,002
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19329262
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Josh89/pseuds/Josh89
Summary: Before leaving Grimsborough for Pacific Bay, the detective takes the chance to revisit one of his older friends and go for a walk in the woods.





	A Walk in the Woods

**Author's Note:**

> Timeline: A couple of hours before Leaving.

The loose brown leaves crunched under the soles of my shoes as I walked towards the hunter’s small cabin. “Mr. Savage”.  
The hunter sighed, turning to face me. “What is it, Sheriff Joshua? Whose murder are you here to accuse me of this time?” he asked angrily.  
“That’s not why I’m here. Not this time. I need to talk to you about something completely different. Care to take a walk with me?”  
The hunter paused, considering the question, before reluctantly nodding. “Fine, but if this is a trick to get me away from my house while your partner searches it…”  
He didn’t continue, and I didn’t need him to. “Don’t worry. I know that you and Jones have never really seen eye to eye, and I can assure you my partner is nowhere near here”.  
He nodded. “Lead the way then”.  
The two of us walked quietly through the forest for roughly thirty minutes before he sighed quietly. “So why did you want to talk to me?”  
“I suppose you heard about the so-called ‘trial of the century’ a few weeks ago where we arrested and sentenced the four most major members of the notorious Crimson Order organization?”  
He nodded. “Of course. It’s been the talk of the town ever since it happened. Most people still can’t believe that there’s been an ancient criminal cult operating within the city for almost 500 years without anyone knowing, according to what little I’ve actually heard”.  
“Makes sense. People tend not to like to believe things until they’re provided with irrefutable proof that the thing is, or has, happened. Anyway, since we closed that case… I’ve been offered a position with the police department over in Pacific Bay, and I’ve accepted. I leave in a couple of days from now. I guess I just wanted to say goodbye to you and apologize for us suspecting you of murder several times when you’re actually a really, really, genuinely good guy”.  
“A lot of people don’t understand that. I find that these woods are really the only place that I can be myself, you know? I don’t have to worry about what other people think of me, I can just relax and breathe easily. And… thank you for apologizing. I know that can’t have been easy.” he said quietly.  
I nodded. “You’d actually be surprised how easily those words came to me. But then again, I always knew you weren’t responsible for any of those deaths in the first place, so I suppose that counts for something”.  
“I suppose so”.  
There was an easy silence between us as we walked through the forest together, James occasionally breaking the silence to point out animals or an interestingly-shaped fungus or tree branch. After around thirty minutes, we emerged from the trees onto a quiet dirt road. “Not a lot of people actually know about this road. That’s why it’s not as well-maintained as some of the other roads in this area, because not enough people know about it to justify city money being spent on it” James said with forced calm, though I could tell from the tone of his voice he was doing so with barely-disguised contempt.  
I saw something white lying motionless in a small ditch on the side of the road ahead of us and pointed it out to him. “Apparently someone else beside us does know about it”.  
“What the hell is that?”  
I shrugged. “Whatever it is, it looks bad. Come on, we’d better check it out”.  
Running over to where I had spotted the white object, I crouched, moving some loose leaves away from it to be able to see it better. I felt my breath catch in my throat as the object’s actual identity registered. “James. I was right, this is bad. Very bad.”.  
Laying in the shallow ditch, barely breathing, and visibly shaking, was a tiny white-furred husky puppy. It couldn’t possibly have been more than a month, possibly two months, old. I let my fingers brush against its leg, and it gave the quietest whimper I’d ever heard. “It looks like whoever left this little cutie here did definitely not have its best interests at heart. I can see an injured leg, and it’s barely breathing. This little thing is only about two months old, maybe not even that. We have to do something”.  
He immediately nodded, kneeling next to me. “What do you suggest?”  
I began to take my jacket off. “See if you can clear some of those leaves and dirt away and give us a clear area. The important thing is to get him or her off the cold ground”.  
He took a quick glance at the puppy, and then nodded. “Her. This husky pup’s female. And yes, that’s a good idea. We can use your jacket as a blanket until we get her back to my cabin. I have supplies we can use to treat her leg there but keeping her warm is the most important thing right now. Once we get her back to my cabin and treat her leg, we can see about getting her some food”.  
As he spoke, the two of us worked quickly, and it didn’t take long before we were standing again, the only differences being that now I had a husky puppy wrapped in my jacket, and that my jacket was in my arms. As we walked back through the woods to his cabin, we chatted quietly, and eventually I queried “Do you think you’ll adopt her? I know it’d be hard having another dog around after what happened at the dog pageant, but I’d feel safer if I knew she was with someone I trusted to look after her rather than if she went to a pet shop or shelter”.  
The look on James’s face was enough of an answer for me. “You’re already planning to adopt her, aren’t you? I’m guessing you’ve already got a name picked out for her?”  
He smiled. “Nova. Her name is Nova”.


End file.
